“Advance Together” Party Leader “Objective is to Syphon Tory Votes to the Lib Dems”

It’s not just Dominic Raab who is facing mysteriously un-branded attack leaflets. The leaflets, paid for by a new party called ‘Advance Together’, all attack the Tory incumbent and do nothing to mention their nondescript party. In total, five ‘Advance Together’ candidates are standing, all in Tory-held Lib Dem target seats…

Wokingham (John Redwood)

Mid Sussex (Mims Davies)

Hitchin and Harpenden (Bim Afolami)

Esher and Walton (Dominic Raab)

Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers)

‘Advance Together’ looks more and more like a Lib Dem front than a legitimate political party. The leader of the party stood as a top LibDem parliamentary candidate in the last election, and the ‘campaign director’ worked for Simon Hughes.

An election expert tells Guido these are not cheap leaflets. The quality and quantity of the leaflets which have flooded constituencies has led teams on the ground to believe that they have been delivered by Liberal Democrats and have serious experience behind them. One source in Chipping Barnet tells Guido:

“They have to have been delivered by Lib Dem leafleting teams. ‘Advance Together’ doesn’t have a ground game.”

Annabel Mullin, the ‘former’ Liberal Democrat who runs Advance Together has said explicitly on her company’s website that “our objective is to syphon Tory votes to the Lib Dems.”